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I prefered the old Blue/Silver/Red, West Midlands Travel/Travel West Midlands livery it was quite distinctive.

I'm of a similar ilk to you Stu, and remember fondly the PTE operating around Walsall, indeed my best friend's Grandad was an Inspector at Walsall - halcyon days of riding my bike through the sheds at Carl Street!

I remember the explosion of colour and competition on deregulation where new operators, and some who'd already dipped their toe into subsidised services, were vying for passengers. From a young enthusiast's perspective, it was like nothing I'd ever experienced. New Timesaver services linking Bloxwich to Brum and beyond, the mew Metroriders penetrating local estates and, not to long after, I'd be part of the post deregulation onslaught working for Midland Choice, rival to WMT, on the lucrative Bloxwich corridor.

Dereg certainly created competition, though with it came some VERY questionable buses in both appearance and condition there to make a fast buck rather than providing a quality service. On some routes, it gave WMT a swift kick to up their game, which was great for passengers and WMT's reputation, and promote the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach with Superline and joint operator initiatives. It also gave other operators an opportunity to specialise on semi-rural operations, like Chase in Brownhills/Burntwood on their 94, giving WMT almost the opportunity they wanted to reduce their respective services in these less commercially viable areas.

Perhaps I look back through rose-tinted glasses in some respects, but the one thing I do know, is reregulating buses will be a massive step back that will see less variety for passengers, with a "like it or lump it" attitude from the local authority.

Right, where did I park my Raleigh Grifter....................

I'm of a similar ilk to you Stu, and remember fondly the PTE operating around Walsall, indeed my best friend's Grandad was an Inspector at Walsall - halcyon days of riding my bike through the sheds at Carl Street!

I remember the explosion of colour and competition on deregulation where new operators, and some who'd already dipped their toe into subsidised services, were vying for passengers. From a young enthusiast's perspective, it was like nothing I'd ever experienced. New Timesaver services linking Bloxwich to Brum and beyond, the mew Metroriders penetrating local estates and, not to long after, I'd be part of the post deregulation onslaught working for Midland Choice, rival to WMT, on the lucrative Bloxwich corridor.

Dereg certainly created competition, though with it came some VERY questionable buses in both appearance and condition there to make a fast buck rather than providing a quality service. On some routes, it gave WMT a swift kick to up their game, which was great for passengers and WMT's reputation, and promote the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach with Superline and joint operator initiatives. It also gave other operators an opportunity to specialise on semi-rural operations, like Chase in Brownhills/Burntwood on their 94, giving WMT almost the opportunity they wanted to reduce their respective services in these less commercially viable areas.

Perhaps I look back through rose-tinted glasses in some respects, but the one thing I do know, is reregulating buses will be a massive step back that will see less variety for passengers, with a "like it or lump it" attitude from the local authority.

Right, where did I park my Raleigh Grifter....................

Whilst d-reg may have created competition, it also created bus wars, the area i live in has had a few bus wars since d-reg, although the last one was Arriva/First in 2006/07, things have calmed down since then, & one of the biggest bus was the MTL/GM Buses bus war in the early 90s.

One benefit, the ending of arrangements were companies [often NBC companies] were restricted from picking up & setting down passengers, in some Towns & Cities, particularly if their was a Municipal operating in the area, for example, before d-reg Ribble were prevented from carrying local passengers in Southport on all their interurban routes, d-reg ended that.

Fur an underrated non Birmingham scenic route, 

22 Chester-West Kirby, some journeys go via Willaston, then Little Neston, Neston, Parkgate-Heswall, Irby, & Greasby the route goes along the front at Parkgate that you have views across the River Dee

Another one, is mobile data is not working, & trying to get a free ride.

 This happened on an Arriva North West bus [X30] i was on a couple of years ago, passenger boarding the bus claiming his mobile data wasn't working [trying to get a free ride] driver refused to allow him to board, que a Mexican standoff, that the driver ended up calling the police to have the passenger removed from the bus, & the bus ended up about 30 minutes late because of this, & this is an hourly service.

Birmingham doesn't really need a bus station in the City Centre for local routes, because of far too many routes & a load of routes are high frequency too, frequent routes like the 50 could need 2 or 3 layover spaces as well as stand space should a bus station be built.

Whilst the likes of Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol & few other Towns & Cities have bus stations, however they're used by regional routes & coaches, most of the local routes operate as cross town routes, or start/terminate at another location Town/City Centre

Don't forget the 49 which replaced the 69 by extending to terminate at Weoley Castle. Now that was a long route to Solihull too.

And the version of the 48 which took place after the network review in 2018. Where instead of going straight to Weoley Castle and Northfield after the QE it went round Hawkseley etc to replace the 84.

I do remember getting the 49 Solihull-Northfield end to end a load of times very long route that took 90 minutes.

35 Birmingham-Kings Heath which did a long convoluted loop from Kings Heath via Hawksley & Northfield to Kings Heath think took 90 minutes, may have taken longer, & had to be operated by single deckers because it went under the low bridge at Bournville

X8 Birmingham-Wolverhampton can take just under 90 minutes off peak, & up to 20 minutes longer in the peak

Outside West Midlands.

TrawsCymru have a load of routes that can take well over 3 hours, T2 Bangor-Aberystwyth takes nearly 4 hours, T4 Cardiff-Newtown takes around 4 hours too

Here's the new first 374/375 Bristol-Taunton/Bridgewater timetable

https://www.firstbus.co.uk/sites/default/files/public/maps/374_375_376_376a_Wells_Web.pdf

Stagecoach operate some monster routes in Scotland, but tend to allocate coaches, however 35 Aberdeen-Inverness uses standard buses & can take 5 hours 30 minutes, i believe the 35 is one of the most scenic routes in the UK too. 

Found some info on the MidlandRed.net site, & it shows Midland Red West ran an X73 Wolverhampton-Bristol in 1985 which then became Birmingham-Gloucester after d-reg, the service was withdrawn 1988

http://midlandred.net/service/timetable/display.php?routeID=1400

http://midlandred.net/service/timetable/display.php?routeID=3427

http://midlandred.net/service/timetable/search.php?service=all&operator=mrw&sortby=service&area=all

Stagecoach acquires Tower Transit with the depot at Lea Interchange from Kelsian Group

https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/uk/stagecoach/rns/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=273&newsid=1588406

Next time, should try Birmingham to Carlisle on Avanti West Coast, might get some decent advances [i've seen £27.70 single listed for the direct services], but the normal off peak fare is £105 return, &  valid from 06.15 on a normal weekday

Then Northern, Carlisle to Newcastle, the Northern fare is from £18.70 off peak day return, to £23.60 anytime return.

Always buy split tickets on long distance services

NX website does not have network maps and does not have timetables of all operators, only NX  and many of those in a printer-unfriendly format with much wasted empty space and no street-by-street route listing.
The tourist information desk at the library is just the library information desk that's always been there with a single rack of heritage trail leaflets, no other tourist information whatsoever and I doubt very much the staff expect or are equipped to deal with the kind of visitor questions, accommodation requests, travel questions and theatre and event bookings that a traditional tourist information centre would handle.

That may well be, but of the bus companies, NXWM is by far the easiest site of all the major bus operators to use, try navigating through Arriva & Stagecoach's sites for example, which is one of the worst sites on the net, as for network maps, NXWM don't really need to publish there own maps, as Network West Midlands publish the network maps for the West Midlands which include all operators anyway.

Indeed, Jenkin Road is one of the steepest roads in Sheffield, I know having grown up at the bottom of it!  In the mid 90s Sheffield Omnibus ran up part of it, Atlantean or National thrash up there was just crazy.  In more recent years First have run up the steepest part of it but generally it's Streetlites and B7/B9 haulage which seems to manage it OK. Watched Le Tour pass pretty much by my parents house, fair to say some of the riders clearly didn't appreciate that sort of climb at the end of a spectator type stage!

:D

It's not that long of a climb in terms of length isn't it, but it's the steepness of it that catches a few out, even though a few would have rode it in training before the tour.

The route that i caught was the Sheffield-Meadowhall[think the route number was 36], i see the route has been now partly replaced 32/32A but only uses some of the length, & 95A which uses the full length of Jenkin Road

I've been on a bus up the notorious hill that is Jenkin Road in Sheffield, this has a max gradient of 14.1%, with an average gradient of 11%, this was used in stage 2 of the 2014 Tour De France[the first 3 stages were held in England], & was a categorised climb[category 4] which was called cote de Jenkin Road for the race. ;D.

Sports take place on Boxing Day[quite often sees the biggest attendances of the season], i see Villa & Wolves are scheduled for the home matches, & not everyone has or has access to a car, so have to rely on buses with no trains operating & taxis being quite expensive.

Plus as said people still need to get to/from work & seeing there families, & still need to travel on the bus if they don't have access to private transport